


The Hours You're Online

by unangel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural) is Indifferent to Sexual Orientation, Dean is Bad at Feelings, DeanCas - Freeform, Destiel - Freeform, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Online Relationship, Slow Burn, Switch Castiel, Switch Dean
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-04-26 04:08:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14393961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unangel/pseuds/unangel
Summary: With John Winchester missing and no answers available in his journal, the two brothers take it upon themselves to research monster lore. Sam usually buries himself in ancient books for resolutions while Dean scans the internet for quick facts.One afternoon while Sam is at the library, Dean is exploring on his laptop. While clicking tab after tab, link after link, he stumbles upon a forum - TheUnknown.Online. A not-so-popular site used by a curious community of “wanna-be hunters.” Dean signs up and decides he wants to give strangers his insight on the supernatural.In which Dean doesn’t know how to respond to a personal message from a user self-titled Feathers401, “I’ll watch over you.”





	1. Chapter 1

_They both hold their breath as the phone rings._

 

_Dean and Sam sit in a cheap motel room. The sun is setting, Sam has printed articles scattered around him. They're all annotated, Sam likes to read._

_The older Winchester has an older laptop flipped open facing him on the table._

_They look at one another, they both know who they want the call to be from._

 

Dean pauses then flips it open and sighs out, "Hello?"

He avoids Sam's eyes from across the table. One, two, three seconds go by before a familiar voice replies to him.

"Dean," Bobby says, "Still no word from him. But I got word of him."

Dean finally looks back at Sam and shakes his head no. The younger Winchester huffed out a sigh and slammed his hand down onto the table. It fell next to a series of books, their papers yellow and crinkled from being so old and used.

Sam always adopts a new anger when John lets them down, time after time.

"Word from other hunters is that John's actin' strange," Bobby continues.

Dean snorts "Strange? Bobby everythin' about us is strange."

"They say he ain't regular huntin' no more, he's lookin' to take on somethin’ bigger. Bigger than any of us think he can take."

 

Unfortunately, that sounded like their dad. It seemed as if he lived by the phrase _'go big or go home!'_ and immediately after the flames swallowed the boys mother had passed. John would leave a young four year old Dean alone in hotel rooms to watch baby Sammy. He'd be hunting for days, Dean would flinch at every car horn and every foot step passing by. Dean knew he needed to protect a rosy-cheeked Sam but he was always so afraid himself.

As a child, he tried to understand. Sam didn't understand. _Why can't we have a normal life Dean?_ He'd ask and then John finally decided Sam was old enough to know the truth. That Mary had died when Sam was an infant, that John was looking for the monster who did this to them. Dean didn't mention he had to take Sam and run, that he was just a child too. That he didn't want this life either.

 

"Boy? You got anythin' to say?" Bobby shook Dean out of his thoughts.

"I'm a little worried, I guess," Dean did not like talking about how he felt. Be a good soldier. "I wish he'd let us know sometime, you know? If he's every comin' back, if he's ever gonna talk to us again." Sam snorted at that, as he pretended to focus on the ancient text in front of him.

Bobby took a pause and then sucked a sigh through his teeth. "Sometimes your daddy doesn't realize what he's takin' on until he's swallowed halfway by it. I'm just sayin' that..." Dean knew he was trying to find the right words, "...that when John needs ya' he'll come around."

And to that Dean scoffed, "What about when _we_ need _him_? Not all the answers are in his journal. An' sometimes you don't pick up when we call." Dean tried to keep calm and collected, he knew Bobby never wanted his two boys in this position.

 

They both knew John was unreliable and often used the boys for his benefit, he was a man blind with revenge. It's so easy to blame anyone, and it's so easy to be angry. He hated admitting he was angry with John, but truth be told, Dean was as sick of John's antics as Sam was. Both Winchester boys wanted to help their father. But John  had left them without a word. Leaving only a cellphone number written on a napkin old and stained with grease saying _Big case...I'll be back_. This was weeks ago. Being found was the last thing on John's list.

 

Sam had took the napkin in his fist and crumpled it until it was ball. He threw it across the room hoping it would shatter like glass.

_Sam looked at Dean with wide, pleading eyes, "We can be normal Dean, we deserve it. We can be normal."_

_"What if he comes back?"_

_"Dean maybe for a little while, he won't be back soon he said it's a big hunt. We can live normal lives."_

_"He's coming back, Sam! Forget it! He's gonna come back." Dean remembers averting his eyes away from sad glass hazel one., "Besides...We can't stop hunting. People need us."_

_They got ready for bed in silence, they fell asleep in silence. They both woke up and they stayed silent for a long time._

_Dean retrieved and smoothed out the only ties between him and his dad._

_Sam finally broke the silence, "He needs us as much as we need him. We can't force him to realize that." He assured himself. Dean nodded without a word and started to look for a new case._

 

Dean stared at the once blue, now faded motel wall, "I'm scared to do this alone. Bobby, we both know what he's after. We both knew it was coming."

"Dean, I'm here for you boys while your daddy steps out, okay? Sometimes he don't realize that the Winchesters are stronger together. He'll come around." He repeated.

"I hope you're right Bobby." _The Winchesters are stronger together._ "Can you tell me what other hunters have reported on him?"

"Sure, Dean. Some said he was drawing symbols, sprawlin' them on napkins that didn't go unnoticed. They didn't recognize 'em, practicin' to remember them or somethin'. They don't remember what they looked like."

"Somethin' to find Yellow Eyes?" Bobby muttered a _yea_ , Dean was not surprised.

 

Both boys knew when John left that he had finally got the guts to hunt the monster that took their mom. They were both taken by surprised by how soon it was, they both agreed in silence that no one was ready for it. John shouldn't be doing it alone and that's what stabbed at Dean's gut. Being left alone. Being abandoned by his father when he knew he could help.

He decided not to pry anymore. Dean decided he couldn't do anything to help a man who decided to jump in the deep end.

 

“Thanks Bobby.” He said.

Bobby ended the call saying, “Anythin’ for you boys, anytime.”

 

“So while you two chatted, I think I found a case. Get this,” Sam pulled a newspaper up and read it aloud, “Local teens screwing around in a cemetery. Suddenly some stranger comes out and decides to gnaw on one of their friends.”

Blowing out a whistle Dean said, “Doesn't sound like anything we’ve handled yet. Did you check Dad’s journal?”

“Yea. It sounds like a description of a ghoul, but the thing is I’m not seeing a remedy for this thing.”

Dean gave Sam a sly smirk, “I’ll figure it out, Sammy,” he turned his attention back to his computer. “I’m the best hunter in this room after all.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “Whatever you say. I think I’ll go to the library.”

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Sam to base his research off of information from books. Dean couldn’t understand how he could focus on a task for such a long period of time. Hence why Dean surfed on the internet, _“Hours of enjoyment, Sammy!”_

 

Dean had been clicking link after link, searching for answers on ghouls. He entered keywords like _flesh eating, cemetery, creature_ into the search engine. Then he prayed to himself he was heading in the correct direction. Using the internet to find monster lore had always been difficult. People liked to write erotic fiction on monsters and he had stumbled upon it more times than he’d like to admit.

He scrolled and scrolled until he saw _The.Unknown.online._ Under the link was a little blurb in a smaller font that Dean had almost ignored:

_‘A place to discuss the odd, the weird, a place where people accept the supernatural.’_

This pulled at his curiosity, and he tapped the link with a gentle finger. Dean hoped to himself that it wasn't a psycho-dating site.

The design of the website was minimal, no tacky color schemes or fonts used. On the top right, there was a menu that Dean assumed was a refresher for the home page. Next to that was _browse_ , and when Dean hovered his mouse over it, a full selection of monster types appeared. It was like Dean had found the hunter’s pot of gold.

After came a search bar to look up specific monsters, _or users_ , Dean thought as his eyes roamed over to “ _Sign Up!”_

 

 _No harm no foul,_ he made the choice to sign up. Dean was feeling confident that the website would be something to have some hunter’s fun on. Maybe it was all fan written articles that had a high chance of not mentioning salt.  It can be beneficial when dealing with ghosts, too.

 

**Welcome to The Unknown, Impala67!**

 

_You can now write your own articles on creatures and questionable characters! Now, you can collaborate with other users, send and receive personal messages, and leave comments._

 

“Sweet.” Dean mumbled as he searched _ghoul.  He_ was genuinely surprised when there was a handful of results.

The first result seemed reliable enough, written by FitsIV, so Dean clicked it.

He skimmed through and actually found that _maybe_ these things die through decapitation.

If this website was fiction written by wanna-be hunters, Dean wouldn’t mind. He could write a few of his own and hope people would use the information to help themselves when he couldn’t help them.

 

A little sliver in Dean wished this was a lowkey community for hunters. Where they could share what certain weapons killed what monsters and not seems crazy. That people assumed it was some kind of teenage D&D junk, just people live action role playing, _it can’t be real!_

Dean’s hunch, about this being a hunting community, all seemed too real. How would normal people know _so_ much? He clicked another article on ghouls and the results said the same thing: what they were and how to kill them. Both explanations and ways of riding the monster were too similar.

He looked up ghosts, and read over and over that what all the users said. _Use salt and iron! Burn the bones!_

He rubbed a hand over his eyes and his fingers typed as quick as they could, had he found hunters anonymous?

 

Dean slid his hand over the old table and grabbed his phone. He flipped it open and texted Sam. _‘Decapitation? A Few sources said so…’_

He looked around the old motel room, assuming it was designed when he could barely walk. Dean went back to his old laptop, the keys were sticky from years over overuse and some letters were fading. “This hunting stuff is getting _old.”_ He said alone in the room.

 

_PING!_

 

The sound shook him out of his trance. He looked at the phone, seeing no messages from Sam nor Bobby. Or John. He walked to the phone hanging on the wall of the room, the _old_ phone, and inspected it.

 

Nothing.

 

Dean walked back to his electronic. Then he skimmed the page once more, his eyes caught a little bubble hovering over _Your Profile._ He clicked the bubble and realized it was someone sending him a chat. His fingers hovered over accept and he thought for a second to himself.

_Why was someone reaching out to him when he’s made no impact on the website?_

He clicked accept and read the message from the user _Feathers401._

 

_Feathers401: Worry not Dean, these people are not making this information up. Some of it can be useful to you._

 

“What the fuck?” He said to the screen and was stuck between replying and throwing the whole damn laptop out of the window. He stared for a good minute and began to type.

 

_Impala67: what the hell dude??? who r u?_

_Feathers401: I didn’t mean to alarm you. You can say I’m an administrator, I saw you recently joined the site._

_Impala67: ur like an official user or somethin? what do u do on here?_

_Feathers401: I watch over people, mainly. I’ll watch over you._

 

Dean read that over a few times, and then a few times more. He slammed the laptop closed and decided to message Feathers another time. He shuddered at the thought of a stranger watching him. Though part of him knew the user meant regulating other profiles.

 _Makin’ sure no funny business was goin’ on_ he thought to himself.

 

The television was playing lowly as Dean sat at the table. Too late at night, and looked to see a motionless figure laying on a bed too small. Sam was snoring and looked peaceful. Dean turned his attention back to the laptop he didn’t realize his own two hands were opening.

He read Feathers’ message again. He began to type but his forefinger jammed at the backspace. Dean decided not to reply until he caught a few hours of sleep. He didn’t want to embarrass himself more.

 

The older Winchester slid into the twin bed that his brother wasn’t occupying. The one closer to the door. Dean laid with his eyes closed and thought about ghouls. He thought about how he would kill it, about how he could add some notes on it to his Dad's journal. He liked to think to himself John would appreciate that, and he thought about John for some time.

He thought and thought until he was falling into a sleep listening to a symphony of snores adjacent to him.

 

 _I’ll watch over you_ . _I’ll watch over you._

Dean allowed himself to be welcomed to a deep slumber by those four words.

 


	2. Important Note From Author

This story was not turning out how I envisioned it, and instead of feeling unsatisfied but continuing to write I've decided to delete it and rewrite it. I realize this is a let down to many of you, but I promise it will have a better pace and characters will be more developed. I have many ideas for this story and until I can decide how to make it flow better and have a more consistent set up, it'll be only the first chapter. 

All of you kind comments and kudos and support will not be forgotten.

I'm sorry to do this. If you have questions you can totally message me on tumblr at  **xocastiel** , which is my blog for supernatural. I hope you can understand my reasoning behind this. 

Thanks much.

-xf


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